Children of a Darker Place
by misa1
Summary: Recently bested, the Beldam tries her luck elsewhere.  COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

_This is the first thing I've posted here in bleedin' ages. I have very little free time these days, so this may take me a while to finish. Apologies in advance for that. ^^; I've finally gotten around to updating my profile, and getting back to some writing. This is the first X-over I've done. I usually avoid X-overs. I feel like X-overs in general are extremely difficult to do well, and if they're not done well, they can be pretty laughable. But, here goes anyway!_

She decided the world was best pictured as a floating coin. The many small lives she'd hoped to harvest spread out across its head. They were out of her reach. She was banished. She clung to the coin's tail-side, scrabbling at the edge with the raw fingers of one hand.

One thought alone gave her comfort: There were children everywhere. Moreover, they were all more or less the same, with only the slightest variation from one place to the next. She'd grown complacent, she told herself. That was the reason she'd been so recently bested by the cheeky girl in the yellow raincoat, and it wouldn't happen again.

The town she'd selected was sleepy, despite having a modest fame in dark circles. It was surrounded by bleak, wind scoured hills, which were in turn hemmed by a forest of leafless trees. And there were children. She could smell them. The scent was faint, but distinctive. It came most clearly from the largest building in the vicinity, an off-kilter mansion jutting from a rocky precipice near the town square. A lip of slate protruded from the back of the house, somehow balancing a handful of forlorn trees. Beside the trees rested a shallow wooden box of gray sand, accompanied by an assortment of impractical little rakes, pails, and spades. A wax-scribbled paper flag fluttered in the wind. It stood impaled on a twig, stabbed into a mound of the sand. Small children.

Given the size of the house, The Beldam registered this as a family of some means. She'd been around long enough to know that this hardly guaranteed happy children. Quite the contrary, offspring of the well-to-do were often the most miserable. They were either coddled little hothouse flowers, incapable of satisfaction, because they'd never known what it meant to want, or they were just the opposite: utterly ignored, and therefore desperate for the smallest crumb of attention. Wealthy children had no survival instinct.

Several days, observation revealed to The Beldam the following: The leaning manor belonged to the Skellingtons, the first family of Halloweentown. The famous and skeletal Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington, stood as patriarch. His queen, of which The Beldam knew nothing, seemed a more reserved personality, compared to her husband. There were five children. The firstborn were skeleton twins, too old for The Beldam's concern. The youngest was a girl, the only child of the five whose looks favored their mother. Quite small and a touch spoiled, she was a happy child, therefore difficult to tempt. That left the two middle boys. The younger was close in age to the girl. He and she were usually together. The pair spent hours playing with toys in the sandbox, or trotting about the town square. They were doted on by the townsfolk, their parents, and even the two eldest boys. The Beldam turned her attentions to the one remaining child. If any of the Skellington offspring were to be pursued, he appeared the most likely candidate. That was often the case with middle children. She studied him one gray fall day, his boney form draped over a craggy section of stone wall near the well. His distracted father patted his skull in passing. The boy exhaled a bored sigh. From her place in the shadows, The Beldam was pleased.


	2. Chapter 2

_Yeah...the updates come slow as molasses these days. Sorry 'bout that. Also, I added a bit to the end of chapter one._

The basics of any anyone's life could be gleaned from a distance. Beyond that, The Beldam needed a spy. A silent informant, capable of gaining a child's implicit trust. She made a doll in the Skellington boy's likeness. The construction process took her slightly more effort than usual. She was used to fashioning copies of plump human youngsters. Her well-practiced pattern had to be altered for the spidery little creature now in her sights. There was also the tedium of doing everything with one hand (_curse that rotten little girl!_). She paused at one point, realizing quite suddenly that the boy didn't exactly have...eyes. Was this a problem? Possibly? Possibly not. In any event, she had no room to pick and choose. She pulled large black buttons from a coat, finding that they stood in nicely for the boy's hollow sockets. The doll complete, she placed it in his bedroom, casually dropped among more familiar toys. She then retreated, curling up between layers of the ether. She'd need to start weaving soon, but first there was the matter of learning what the boy pined for. What would he want most in a perfect world of his own design? The short answer was attention, of course. She knew that even without the doll. They all wanted attention.

Through the plastic disks of the doll's coat button eye sockets, The Beldam saw the child notice the new plaything. She held her breath; an angler with that first tentative tug on the line. The skeleton child stared, blinking twice. He gave the doll a timid poke in its stuffed ribs with a boney finger. Then, he did something most unusual. Something which all of The Beldam's centuries of pursuing humans had never prepared her for. He screamed. Screamed, and leaped forward, clapping his hand over the doll's face. Her view went dark.

A short time later, the toy's vision remained obstructed. It seemed that the doll had been bound with some description of dark ribbon or gauze, wound around its skull. The Beldam could, however, still hear. There seemed to be a quorum of sorts surrounding the toy.

"I'm telling Dad."

"No you are not, Guy! Not right now."

"But..." The voice dissolved into sobs, followed by a scurry of young voices in both argument and support.

One sentence rang out, snapping The Beldam's attention:

"I don't want her to get me!"

He knew? How? How could he have known? No one knew. At least, not until it was past the point of being a help to them.

"Oooh, she won't get you." said a weary voice. One of the older boys.

"She can't, unless you let her. Just don't let her. And don't say anything to our parents right now! It's too close to Halloween. Dad doesn't have time to worry about this too, and Mom will get upset... You're supposed to go out with us for the first time this year, Guy. Don't you want to?"

The question was answered with a sniffley whimper, which The Beldam could only interpret as a "yes".

"Then throw the doll away, and forget about it. If Dad and Mom think something is hunting for you, they might not want you to go to the human world."

"Agree." said the other older boy. "Especially because she's usually there, isn't she? It's a bit weird for her to leave a doll for anyone in Halloweentown. That's going by what I've heard, anyway."

"It's a very cute doll. It's a shame to throw it away..." said a small voice, ringing into the mix for the first time. That must be the girl, thought The Beldam. She wondered if she should have picked the little girl instead. Spoiled and happy or not, if the child had a weakness for dolls...

"Don't touch it!", wailed Guy. "Don't touch it, Hazel! You might knock the ribbon off!"

"Lock it up. Keep it away from Hazel and Arthur." one of the older pair sighed, a touch irritated by now. "They're too little to know better."

The youngest pair registered insult at that proclamation, while the other twin suggested the doll be tossed into the fire.

"Eh, then another one might show up." the first brother said. "Better to just lock it away for now. We'll talk to Dad after the holiday, okay Guy?"

The Beldam heard her chosen child agree. There was rustle, as the doll was laid in a coffin-shaped toy chest. Then, nothing but still silence.


	3. Chapter 3

One week before Halloween, the three youngest Skellington children sat in a close circle at the edge of the pumpkin patch. Guy made impressions in the dirt with his fingertips. Using pumpkin seeds as markers, he did his best to teach his younger brother Arthur a simple sowing game. Hazel looked on. She delivered animated report on the gameplay to her favorite doll. Guy gave an involuntary shiver, The Beldam could have learned all there was to know about any of them, if she'd made a facsimile for Hazel. _The Beldam._ Guy hoped that playing a game with Arthur would be a distraction, but it provided little more than background noise. Even with the doll locked away, he knew she was still after him. He'd seen the door. Rather, he'd seen the dim rectangular halo of purple-green light which seeped around the door's edges. It was set against the back wall of an old hearth in his room. He could see it best peripherally, out of the corner of his eye sockets. When he looked directly at the soot shadowed bricks, the light slowly faded. A look away, then a quick sidelong glance back, served to reaffirm its existence. Guy finished a turn at the game, gesturing to Arthur to take a go. Several townsfolk rolled massive orange pumpkins out of the field, in the direction of the town square.

While it may not have appeared so to the uninitiated, but Halloweentown was an incomparably safe place for its children. Every little one was known to every grown creature. This was doubly true for the Skellington children. They found protective eyes upon them at almost every turn. Guy and his siblings had been warned about strangers, but in terms far more theoretical than was necessary for most human youngsters. Anything capable of reaching Halloweentown was at least likely to be a known quantity. When it came to these threats, Guy had been thoroughly briefed by his parents. He knew about divs and pale men, kappas, and changelings. He also knew about The Beldam. His older brothers asssured him that if you had to have a malevolent entity take an interest in you, The Beldam was less worrisome than most. "She can't hurt you unless you cooperate with her." Jack jr. repeatedly reminded Guy. "She catches human kids easily, because they don't know anything about her." "But then, why is she even here?" Guy had asked one night. "Why wouldn't she just stick to humans?" Jack jr. provided no good answer, only looked sheepishly at his more intellectual twin, hoping for a believable explanation. Even Nicholas faltered for a second or two, ultimately choosing to dodge the question entirely: "It doesn't matter why she's in Halloweentown, Guy. You must have been complaining a lot lately or you wouldn't have caught her attention." Jack nodded in agreement, adding:

"Clearly."

_Am I that unhappy? I don't think I am... _Guy puzzled. He took another turn at the game, noting that there were suddenly too many seeds on the board, as well as several extra divots of varying depths, straggling off to one side.

"What're those?" he asked.

"Bobbin's playing." explained Hazel. She held her doll up, waving its tiny stuffed hand in front of his eye sockets.

"Haaazel..." Guy groaned. "Two people play! It doesn't work with three! Bobbin can't play."

"We'll play with four. Waffles wants in too." said Arthur. He began digging more hollows on the board to accommodate a thermal cloth stuffed spider, cradled in his lap.

"It only works with two!" repeated Guy. He realized immediately that his pleas were futile. Arthur had already added nearly a dozen new spaces to the board. Hazel brought more seeds. She began arranging them in decorative swirls around the edges of the holes.

"I'm going to get some water for a moat. Be right back." said Arthur. Hazel nodded in agreement.

"There's no moat in this game! Arthur, come back!" called Guy. Arthur was already over the hill, out of sight.

"Oh! I don't like playing with you two!" growled Guy, slumping his skull against his bony hands. "But Nicky and Jacky are too old, and Mama and Dad are busy with the holiday, and I don't have any friends, and...and..."

"You always say that kinda stuff, Guy." said Hazel. Her lower lip pouted out, as she pulled Bobbin to her chin.

"Do not." Guy grumbled.

Although, he realized - his sister had a point.


	4. Chapter 4

A little chapter update. Life has been crazy busy lately, but here you go. Also, my spacing got messed up when I uploaded the last chapter. I'll get in there and fix that.

"_We'll talk to Dad after the holiday, okay Guy?_

The Beldam remembered those words, spoken by one of the older Skellington boys, the night Guy found the doll. That imprisoned doll presently useless, The Beldam widened her view as one would twist a telescope. Halloween was a mere three days away, as noted on a countdown clock which rose above the town square. That the children's father was absorbed these final few days was an understatement. His upcoming Halloween Night performance was all consuming. Such parental distraction worked in The Beldam's favor, but was seldom combined with such a looming expiration date. His holiday work behind him, The Pumpkin King would have nothing but time to seek out and expel a home invader.

Jack Skellington was by all appearances a genial and gregarious showman, but The Beldam guessed he wasn't one to be trifled with. Minimal research on the family Skellington yielded ripples of an incident years before. Apparently some enormous thug of a creature had been handily bested by The Pumpkin King. She again scanned the open spaces and public areas of the town. The children's mother was difficult to pin down. In no way was she the equivalent physical threat posed by her husband, but the queen seemed to have an innate ability to linger quietly along the edges of what could be seen. It was as if she could not be focused upon, and hard to tell if that was a purposeful evasive mechanism, or an unintentional result of her natural air. Purposeful or not - it was annoying. What's more, when visible, she gave the nagging impression that she knew something was amiss. She clearly hadn't put it all together as of yet, but the mere fact suspicions were raised was cause for concern.

_Curses_, thought The Beldam. _Curses on this rotten town. When did I get so stupid and slow?_ _It was all those little humans_, she told herself. _Soft little humans_. True, a human child had ultimately delivered her comeuppance, but as a breed they'd proven far less challenging than their shadowy counterparts. There was benefit to be had in simply moving on, she thought. Perhaps she could find somewhere less confounding, somewhere where monsters and ghouls were not so cautious with their young. Defeated by a human girl, and now at an utter loss with the child of holiday royalty, The Beldam clicked her tongue in disgust. She began to dismantle the web-like scaffold on which she'd planned to hang little Guy's dream world. Quivering ribbons meant to support her illusion popped apart like crepe streamers. She spat at the effort, pulling hard against a particularly stubborn remainder. Her peevish force, and the subsequent release of the web, bounced her backwards. Scrambling to right herself, The Beldam instead fell hard against the wrong side of the door in Guy's hearth. Rarely one to be surprised, let alone alarmed, she gasped in a rush of undiluted panic. The door had popped open easily, dropping her into the child's bedroom.

Initially frantic, she calmed upon the realization that no one had seen her. She held her breath for a moment, wondering if anyone had heard the clatter and would be coming to investigate. Silent as the proverbial tomb, the house was empty. The Skellingtons were more than likely all outside, as was often the case in early afternoon. Relieved, albeit a trifle dazed, The Beldam took a brief accounting of the room before her: Ashen gray floorboards in varied widths spanned from right to left underfoot. A moss green rug stretched from before the hearth to the foot of the bed, where sat a wooden toy crate with rope handles. The crate was more than half empty. The boy's playthings were mostly scattered on the floor. From the brief glimpse she'd gotten before Guy blinded her doll, The Beldam recognized a cluttered spot under the window where the boy often sat to play. There was a wardrobe closet against one wall. A school desk stood near the corner.

The room felt oddly comfortable to The Beldam, unlike the series of perfectly symmetrical little shoe boxes occupied by her human pursuits. With their bright walls and straight lines, those rooms always struck her as foreign and antiseptic. Building their copies was much like arranging a terrarium for a small pet. In contrast, Guy's room was almost disconcertingly familar to her senses. After stealing the quickest of looks at ink strewn papers on the small desktop, The Beldam reversed back through the hearth. She closed her door gently behind her. It was only then that the realization hit, striking as bright and quick as summer lightning: Not only had the room felt inviting, it had been so. She had been able to leave her secret place, able to come right into the child's home even though he'd done nothing to allow her across. For what felt like the hundredth time, she was quickly reminded that this was not a human place. The children of monsters were at least her same order, if not her species. True, this made them more difficult in most respects, but The Beldam now recognized a freedom of pursuit which more than leveled the table. She was closer to home than she'd been in centuries.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5, at last. I added a bit to the previous chapter as well. Thanks to Kaitlynn for offering to beta! ^_^

Guy shuffled into bed, the night before Halloween. His bony feet were covered by too long pajama pants, which had previously belonged to one of his older brothers. His mother stood by the wardrobe in his room, hanging pressed suit pants.

"There now." she said. "You'll be ready for tomorrow."

Kissing his skull, she folded back a corner of the quilt as he climbed under the covers. "I can't believe it's already your first time out for Halloween, Guy." she said. "Your father is so proud. He's excited to finally have you with him."

"He is?" Guy asked. His mother's face saddened, and Guy realized he hadn't intended to sound quite so surprised.

"He is!" she insisted. "Very much so! He's been terribly busy... I suppose he hasn't had much time to talk to you about this, but you must know how important your first Halloween night is to him."

"I know." said Guy, relieved to see his mother's smile return. She kissed him again, resting her palm against his cheek. He leaned into her hand, yawning.

"You need to sleep." she said firmly. "You've looked exhausted lately, Guy." He forced a smile. He _was _exhausted. Despite his brothers' assurance that The Beldam was no worry, he couldn't help but keep a wary socket on the hearth as he lay in bed each night. It was as if a hornets' nest hung ominously over his head. His mother turned to leave. A step from the doorway – she stopped. To Guy's puzzlement, she paused there for a long moment, as if she were trying to remember where she'd mislaid something.

"Mom?" he said.

She frowned, folding her arms over her chest.

"What is it, mom?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Ah. Nothing. I was only trying to remember what I have left to finish before bed. Good night, Guy."

She walked from the room. Guy couldn't be certain, but he thought he saw her eyes flick to the hearth as she stepped out.

At a desk in his tower, Jack Skellington sat in deep concentration. A Mercator map of the world spread before him, surrounded by teetering stacks of notebooks, lists, and memos. His wife ascended from the spiral stair landing. She padded to his side and gently rubbed his shoulder blades.

"Is Guy in bed?" asked Jack. His wife nodded against his skull, prompting him to continue: "Can you imagine that tomorrow night will be his first Halloween out with his brothers and I, Sally?", Jack bubbled. "Time is an astounding thing! One never gets used to it!"

"I know, Jack." said Sally. "It _is_ hard to believe he's so big already. But... Jack? Did you ever find the time to do that thing I asked you to?"

Jack scowled at lines of haphazard script on a piece of lined paper. He scratched his skull.

"Jack?" Sally repeated.

"What? Oh! I am sorry, darling. I haven't had a moment! Did you see The Mayor's fear projections for this year? I haven't say anything to him, because I appreciate optimism, but I certainly have my work cut out for me. And I haven't yet done my final checks with the werewolf, or the leeches. I know they'll probably do a variant of last year's approach, since that went so well for them, but it never hurts to expand one's repertoire. And -"

"Jack..." said Sally, reeling him back once more. He laughed.

"I'm sorry. You know how I go on, and on, this time of year... But, I promise you, I will attend to it! No worries, Sally!"

"Thank you, Jack." she said. "Now, do you remember what it was I asked you to do?"

The Pumpkin King opened his mouth to answer, then slipped into a sheepish chuckle.

Smiling, Sally rolled her eyes at him.

"Guy's room, Jack. It may be nothing, but...there's something strange there. I-I don't know... It's as if...as if..."

"As if what, Sally?" said Jack. He swiveled his chair to face her. She bit her lip, resting her hands on his shoulders.

"I wish I could say..." she murmured with a shrug.


	6. Chapter 6

_Here's chapter 6! Again, thanks to my beta for giving it a looksee first!_

Guy rearranged his bed pillow, folding it in half to lift his shoulders and skull from the mattress. There now, he thought. He could keep watch on the hearth wall across from his footboard, without sitting up. The whisper of rectangular light shimmered among the mortar lines, between the bricks, as it had before. Guy tensed his eye sockets, imagining he was in a staring contest with the light. A strange urge possessed him, one which he was certain wasn't wise, yet felt nonetheless irresistible given how many nights of uneasy sleep he'd endured. Anyway, he told himself, it's almost all over. Tomorrow is Halloween. After that...

"You might as well go home." he said, mustering more bravado than he felt. "I'm not going to go through your door."

He thought he saw the door pulse softly after his words. Then again, he'd been staring at it for a while. A trick of the light was more likely, he reasoned, but then door pulsed again. This time, Guy was certain it was brighter. He popped upright in his bed.

"Go away!" he yelled. "My dad's going to get you! He's -"

The glowing rectangle flashed brilliant green, lighting the room. The door flew open, slamming back into the wall. Too shocked to scream, the best Guy could produce was a gulping swallow of air as he scrambled against the headboard of his bed.

Sally's eyes opened. She wondered how long she'd been out. After so much busyness and holiday preparation, she practically fell asleep before her head touched the pillow these days. She rubbed her cheek, shuddering as she registered a hint of that same imperceptible oddness she'd noticed in her son's room. She reached beside her for her husband, hoping he'd done as she asked and investigated the matter. Her hand met with empty sheets on Jack's side of the bed.

Guy recalled the warnings he'd heard of The Beldam. He'd been lead to believe that she would look, for the most part, like his own mother. The creature which had burst through his fireplace looked nothing of the sort. She was metallic and fearsome, bristling with sharp edges. A mouth full of silvery teeth split the cracked porcelain of her face. A physical instinct for self-preservation moved Guy to leap like a cricket from his bed, to the top of his bookcase. Had he not been so utterly terrified, he might have noticed the split instant's worth of bewilderment this maneuver caused his attacker. The pursuit of little ghouls is a constant parade of pros and cons, she thought. No human child had ever proved capable of literally climbing the walls to slither out of reach. The pair gaped at one another for several seconds, before The Beldam decided to speak.

"Guy! At last we meet! Forgive my ill manners, lurking in your hearth all this time without coming out to say hello, but here I am! I thought I heard you saying something about not ever coming through my little door. That hurt my feelings so very badly, Guy. But then, wonder of wonders, I realized that I was able to just pop right through and visit you!"

Guy's heart thundered behind his ribs. He took a breath, preparing to say something defiant to throw The Beldam off of her guard. The best he achieved was to squeak:

"You don't look like my mother."

The Beldam waved her remaining hand.

"Now, now, there's no use for all of that, is there? Not with you. You're not some squishy little human. It's all above boards here in Halloweentown, Guy. You know who I am, and you know what I want."

She stepped toward the skeleton child, her sewing needle legs scratching the floorboards. At her approach, Guy leaped again, this time to his bedroom door. He took hold of the knob, only to find that it wouldn't turn.

"DAAAD! DAAAAAD!" he screamed, pulling violently at the knob.

"Ah, well, you see... That would be the other reason I didn't have to bother with disguises here." The Beldam sighed. "Here in your world, I can make things behave just as I'd like them to."


	7. Chapter 7

Sally crossed the hall for Guy's bedroom door. Her grip slid on the glass doorknob. She found it strangely cold to her touch. Freezing, actually. She gasped, noticing a layer of frost, now furrowed by her fingernails. She wrenched the doorknob once more, banging in sudden unhinged panic against the wood with her other hand. Sally heard a whisper of Guy's voice on the other side. He was calling for his father, thus eliminating any desperate hope she held that Jack was already inside the room. _Where on earth was Jack?_ she wondered, then shoved the thought from her head. Right this second, it couldn't matter.

Roused from her bed by the noise, Hazel ambled into the hall, half asleep. She was nearly knocked down by her mother as the queen ran back into the master bedroom, to reemerge a split second later holding something small in her hands.

"Mama? What's happening? What are you - "

"Stand back for a moment, lumpling!" said Sally, breathless. She pushed Hazel aside for the second time.

Guy yelped again for his father, as he dodged The Beldam's lunge. Another leap found him clinging precariously to the pendant lamp which hung from his ceiling. He perched there, panting. _Where, where, WHERE was his father?_ He cried out as loud as he could manage. The Beldam laughed.

"I've managed to keep your father busy, Guy." she explained. "I'm sure he'd be here by now, but those spiral stairs from his tower have a way of multiplying! He'll exhaust himself before he ever reaches the bottom step."

"What about my mom?" asked Guy. He hoped to stall his attacker, as much as anything else.

"I'm reasonably sure I can handle her." replied The Beldam. She wasn't sure at all. The boy's mother remained discomfitingly elusive to her usual methods, but there was no time to explore new tactics. On the other hand, what little The Beldam had seen of her indicated she wouldn't be much of a worry.

"Now then, Guy. No more play. Let's be off, shall we?" She reached for the child's thin arm, catching it easily in her mechanical claw. She began pulling him toward the hearth, as he wailed in protest.

"Guy, Guy, please!" she hissed. "So much noise! You'll wake the de-"

She couldn't finish her thought. The pair was stunned by a sharp explosion of sound, like a concentrated thunder clap. The bedroom door flew free from its hinges, thrown across the room. The Beldam found herself directly in its trajectory. She was knocked from the boy, and momentarily pinned to the wall.

The Pumpkin Queen stood in the empty, now smoking, doorway. She looked only slightly less surprised than her young son and his unwelcome guest. Guy ran to her.

"Mom? Mom! How did you-?"

The Beldam shook her head. Her brain was ringing from the impact of the door. For several seconds, she found all of her thoughts cut free, like errant balloons. Struggling to refocus, she squirmed from under the door. Guy scrambled behind his mother. As he did so, he thought he glimpsed a slip of dark shadow race across the ceiling. He hid his face in his mother's shoulder, dreading what more could possibly happen.

"What are you?" Sally demanded of the invader. She didn't sound afraid in the least, but Guy could feel her trembling against his bones. Despite this, she stepped closer to The Beldam.

"Are you finally going to let me examine you, your majesty?" laughed The Beldam. "I've been trying and trying, but I just couldn't get a good idea of you before!"

"Get out of our house!" Sally shouted. She tried to move still closer, but Guy held her back. He eyed The Beldam's metallic sharpness, aware of how soft his ragdoll mother felt in comparison. The Beldam laughed.

"I was just leaving, when you so rudely brought the door down on me!" she said. "I'd be happy to continue on my way, but naturally I'll be taking young Guy with me. After all, it's not as if he's been happy here. Correct, Guy?"

"I am happy! I'm very happy here!" Guy answered. Sally cut her eyes to her son for an instant, before again turning to The Beldam.

"I know what you are." she said. "I didn't recognize you at first - but now I know."

"You were expecting an 'other mother'?" said The Beldam.

"You're not taking my child." said Sally quietly.

Smiling, The Beldam lowered her stance. "Do I understand you?" she asked Sally. "Are you challenging me to a fight, gentle one?"

Sally tipped her eyes to the ceiling.

"No. I'm distracting you."

Guy peered over his mother's shoulder. The Beldam had been taken entirely by surprise when The Pumpkin King pounced on her from above. The shock was an advantage he needed. The Beldam was not only larger than he, but a more dangerously constructed creature. Jack however trumped her in speed and agility, making clumsy her attempts to snatch at him with her claw. He drew her closer to the hearth, and angered to blind irrationality, she leaped in pursuit. He slipped away yet again, leaving her to fall through her own door. She caught the sill with her hand, her arachnid-esque body scrambling in panic. Jack fought to close the door against her. The heavy needles making up The Beldam's hand held fast to the hearthstones. Overcome by a wave of bravery, Guy ran from behind Sally, and landed at his father's side. As his Jack pressed the door, Guy used every crumb of his strength to force The Beldam's hand to the other side. At last, exhausted and defeated, she released her grip, falling silently into the nothingness.


	8. Chapter 8

The Skellingtons sat together in a weary, shell-shocked heap. Hazel and Arthur curled in their mother's lap. The older sons traded guilty glances. They knew they'd get theirs soon enough, for failing to divulge what they'd known of The Beldam's interest in their brother. Sitting beside their father, Guy surveyed the wreckage of his room.

"How did you get in, Mom?" he asked, breaking the quiet.

"I was going to ask that, myself." said Jack. The singed door lay where it had fallen, leaning against the far wall. Sally held out a round jar, about the size of a plum.

"What's that?" asked Guy. He reached for the jar, but his mother pulled it away.

"Careful! You can't bump it! I found the recipe in a book. One half a handful, throw it against a locked door, and well, you saw what happened. I wasn't sure if I should make this, but then, I thought how I'd feel if something ever happened! What if I wasn't able to get in to one of you when you needed me?"

"You expected something like this?" asked Guy. Sally shook her head.

"Not exactly this, but one never knows."

"I'm certainly glad you decided to concoct such a thing, Sally." said Jack. "I doubt I would have made it downstairs, if you hadn't." Guy looked quizzically at his father. Jack touched his son's skull.

"When I heard you call for me, Guy, I tried to come as fast as I could. The Beldam had taken measures to keep me from you. The tower stairs went on forever. It was maddening, as if I was caught in a loop! I believe she lost hold of it when the door knocked her down. Excellent timing, along with your mother's forethought, not to mention pure good luck. You're fortunate, Guy."

"Fortunate and loved." Sally added. Guy nodded. He leaned against his father's side.

The Beldam did her best to put the infuriating residents of the Skellington household behind her. She'd chased them from her head for several whole days, when her thoughts were interrupted by a scolding lecture from The Pumpkin King himself, addressed to his two oldest sons. Ah, they'd confessed about hiding the doll. Now they were punished. Boring hard work sowing seeds in the pumpkin patch, for the next two weeks, and no fun at all. Their weak protests met with no leniency, after all, their poor little brother could have been stolen away. The proceedings would have been quite amusing, if it hadn't served as further reminder of her failure.

As her mind's eye became once again silent, The Beldam saw through the doll for the first time since the children had hidden it away. Its coat button eyes unbound, it looked plaintively at The Pumpkin King. He regarded the toy was disdain, before tossing it into the fire.

_End_


End file.
